Wanderer
by Rhearenee
Summary: AU. He was a wanderer, fighting monsters as they came across his path. One such monster brought him to a girl he hadn't expected to see. ShiSaku because there aren't enough of them out there.


_Finally finished this, jeebus, this took me since last year of august to get done. Have to thank for there being a MultiSakuMonth that gave me enough motivation to finally get this done. So this is for MultiSakuMonth day 25 which is ShiSaku._

 _It was kind of refreshing to write from a different perspective. Especially challenging to write Shisui who in canon has next to no personality, so all I had to go on was fanon interpretations of him. I made him more laid back than the regular Uchiha, but still kept him as an asshole, though more of an unintentional one. Shisui is very different from the characters I usually write, so I do hope that I managed to get him across differently._

 _Anyway, at first I wanted to name this after Sakura, but then realized that considering that this focuses more on Shisui that it would make more sense to name it after him, thus Wanderer from the song The Wanderer by Dion. This also has some elements taken from Supernatural, if you know the show you'll know once you see them._

* * *

"I don't really see why I had to come to this small town. I don't see anything here."

" _Because it's part of your job and Otuou-san will skin you alive if you ditch your duties._ "

He sighed, running a hand through his dishevelled hair he deactivated his Sharingan. "It sucks. I got this really cute girls number and-"

" _I don't care, Shisui. Just finish your rounds in the suburbs and you can head back to your flavour of the week._ "

"You're so mean, Itachi."

He heard his cousin sigh on the other end of the phone and shift papers around. " _I'm just making sure you get your job done on time. Outou-san is already angry enough with you for the poltergeist incident at Kõnotori last week."_

Shisui chuckled sheepishly, remembering the incident. He didn't mess up often, honestly, hardly ever, but that day he had had the worst streak of luck ever. "Yeah, that wasn't my brightest moment."

" _Just do this and be on time when you send in your report._ " Itachi hung up on him after that, without a goodbye or a 'good luck on your rounds, Shisui'. Then again he couldn't blame his cousin for being irritated with him. He had deliberately avoided coming to Krane, knowing that the town never had any work for him and if it did then it were some mild hauntings in rice warehouses. It was a drag and he'd rather go after the big dogs, like demons or succubus. Those were always fun to capture.

He dropped his phone in his passenger seat and removed his sunglasses, which he primarily used to hide the red of his Sharingan from normal civilians in order not to frighten them. From the back-seat he grabbed his old, trusty map and flipped it open. He skimmed through it till he reached the page where Krane was. He quickly let his eyes roam over the ghost hotspots he had circled before on the map before he closed the book shut and threw it back from where he previously picked it up.

Groaning Shisui ran a hand down his face. This was going to be a long night. He had already scouted through the main part of the town with the Sharingan and nothing had come up. Following protocol and regulations sucked. Not that he had a problem with the rules the head of Uchiha and his council had set up years ago, it was just that, in his humble opinion, they were outdated and should be updated to make room for new technologies and ideas, but alas Uchiha Fugaku was a stickler to the rules.

Starting up his car he decided to head towards the suburbs. He'll take a quick sweep through there and then head to the rice warehouses on the outskirts of Krane. If anything then he'll at least get some low level ghosts from there, the strip of warehouses was like a ghost beacon. It confused Shisui, but he didn't question it further, it got him his pay-check.

He slowly rolled through a street in the furthest part of the suburbs, his black tinted sunglasses back on his face. He let his eyes roam over the houses, checking for any miasma or discolouration in the atmosphere around the object. So far only a single house at the start of the street had had a slight ripple to it, akin to a spirit's presence. He hadn't missed the 'for sale' stapled at the front door of the house either. There was the possibility that the spirit had pushed out the house's previous owners or it had sought shelter in a quiet place. No matter the reason, it just meant that he'll at least have something to bring back.

Turning his head to the other side of the street he abruptly hit the brakes, eyes widening. Okay, maybe he should have come here earlier. This wasn't normal.

The white, two story house in front of him was reeking of miasma, it engulfing the house like flames. The negative energy was palpable. The sakura tree beside the house, hedge and the grass was much too wilted for the type of season it was. It had recently rained and grey clouds still loomed around the sky – it wasn't hot and dry enough for the flora to wilt like that. He turned his head around to check the house opposite of this only to conclude that, yes, whatever was in the house was emitting enough negative energy that it affected the surroundings.

He felt pity for the poor soul that lived in conditions like that.

Shisui exhaled through his nose, knowing that this will need some investigation. Just from the outside he couldn't tell much, apart from the fact that whatever it was was deeply rooted to the house and was powerful enough to be detectable without his bloodline limit.

He pulled out his phone from his jeans' pocket and pushed the button on the side to turn it on. _2:27 PM._ Still afternoon, which meant that he'll have enough time to spare for a quick peak.

He parked his black car near the curb. Sliding his phone back in his pocket, he got out. He quickly checked his dark hoodie and denim vest for any stains that might have gotten there from his take out dinner. Coming up clean he rolled up the sleeves of his hoodie. Even if the sun wasn't visible the weather was hot and humid, promising a rainfall or a thunderstorm.

When he approached the house and rung the bell he hadn't been expecting for a petite, pink haired woman, looking like death to answer it. Honestly, he had expected for it to be not answered at all, it was a work day, after all. He usually rung the bell to check if anyone was in the house before he started snooping around.

The woman's shoulder length hair was dishevelled, sticking out at odd angles, huge bags under her green eyes that were dull with sleep, or exhaustion most possibly. She also was wearing crinkled pastel purple pyjamas with a white sheep on the front. Any other day Shisui would have found her attire to be cute looking, but with the miasma rolling off her and the glare she was sending his way, she looked like a harpy, ready to attack.

"What?" she barked, narrowing her eyes. Her lip curled in distaste when she roamed him over with her eyes, her piercing gaze settling on his face when she was done taking in his appearance.

"Ah! Sorry." He deactivated his Sharingan and pushed his sunglasses up. The woman in front of him was irritated and he probably didn't give off the best first impression either, staring at her like that. "I'm Shisui. I bought that house down the street and I wanted to come and say hi to my new neighbours before I move in." He quickly weaved together a lie that might seem believable on his reasons for disturbing her. It sounded far fetched, since no one bothered with introducing themselves to their neighbours, but he had met people with weirder habits.

Her expression softened, but it didn't make her drop her defences. The pinkette crossed her arms. "I never would have thought that anyone would buy that haunted house."

He couldn't tell if she was being serious or not, but her admission did surprise him. Could it be that she knew about the supernatural? Shisui decided to play the oblivious card in hopes to weed more information out of her. "Didn't look haunted to me when I checked it out. I don't believe things like that anyway."

She snorted. "Sure. I'm just saying that the house has had three owners already and none of them lasted longer than a month." She dropped her eyes to assess what he was wearing before looking back at him again. "You'll last two weeks. Tops."

Shisui faked hurt. "You have so little faith in me."

"No offense, but you look like one of those douches that'll flee as soon as danger faces them."

The Uchiha smiled, liking this girl already. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind, a nice change from the people he got to meet on day to day basis. Though, with what she has said so far, she started to look more and more suspicious. He knew that gossip was a thing, which might explain her thinking the house is haunted, but the pinkette spoke with such confidence that it made him think that she might be responsible for the haunted house. Witches were known for living in miasma infested places, mostly because of the familiars around them and their craft that called upon the spirits.

"Can't say I haven't heard that one before."

The pinkette rolled her eyes. "I'm just trying to warn you before you regret it. This place isn't the best in the neighbourhood to choose."

"Really? I think it looks quite nice and the neighbours are nice as well."

"Yeah well, they're all just a bunch of two faced cunts. I wouldn't trust them."

Shisui raised his eyebrows at her choice of language. "That's an interesting way to put it."

She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I don't really care what you do, but I don't want to shove another person under the bus and suffer from rumours, so it would be best if you left." She went to close the door, but Shisui put a hand on her door, halting the movement.

"What rumours?" This was what he had been looking for. More often than not rumours held some semblance of truth, especially if it concerned the supernatural.

The pinkette grimaced. "I don't think you want to know." She went to close the door again and this time he didn't stop her. She wasn't willing to talk, so forcing her wouldn't get him anywhere.

The Uchiha strolled back to his car, contemplating his options. It was a work day, so it'll be a few more hours before he'll gain anything from going house to house in hopes that someone will be there to answer his questions. That only meant that he can spend his time until that to scout the last areas of Krane and capture any supernatural being that showed up.

Mind made up he got back into his car. Starting it up he threw a glance towards the house, a frown pulling on his lips. He bit down the guilt that ate at him. If he had come sooner he could have gotten rid of that thing and the pink haired woman wouldn't have had to suffer from it as long as she has.

Xxx

1:07 AM, the green numbers in his car's dashboard read. He popped a chip in his mouth and continued scrolling through various websites on his phone. He cleaned his slaty hand on his leg and rubbed his eyes to ward the sleepiness away. He felt like shit and the dull article he was reading wasn't helping him stay awake. He pulled out his flask from the inside pocket of his vest and took a swig of the hard liquor in hopes that it'd burn enough to ward the sleep away.

Shisui had spent an hour scouting the rest of the town and had found nothing. An hour had been wasted capturing the spirit in the empty house. At first he had pegged it down as a low level nuisance, but when he had actually seen the huge mass of blue blob with his Sharingan he understood why the previous owners had ditched the house. It had been a wandering spirit that had taken residence in the empty house. The spirit had been a water nature one and had employed ice based tactics to scare him off. It had been a bit tricky to catch, since it liked to slide in taps and use the plumbing as a travel method, but he had managed to corner it and seal the spirit in a scroll. Water type spirits that were competent enough to use ice were pretty rare as well, so bonus points for him.

The ice ghost and whatever was in the pink haired woman's house were pretty good reasons to come to Krane after all. Two possibly rare ghosts could add a hefty sum of money to his pay-check.

No soon after he had asked around the neighbourhood about the rumours that the pink haired woman had mentioned. Most talked about the house he had acclaimed as his own to be haunted, but there were a couple few that threw shade towards the miasma covered house. Some accused Pinky, as Shisui liked to call her, of being a witch and cursing whoever came into contact with her, some said that she was the devil's spawn that cursed everyone who made eye contact with her. One lady had even gone as far as to acclaim her of being the Devil himself, drawing in children and eating them, adding that the house reeked of evil and he should stay away from it.

By the end of it his mind had been reeling from all of it. People had crazy imaginations, though now he understood why Pinky had wanted for him to leave. It seemed like anyone who considered themselves her friends were shunned just like her. He knew that the reason why people were acting so kooky was because of the miasma the ghost had created, it twisted people's thoughts and created horrors in their minds to veer them away. It just spoke of the spirits power, also adding to that was the fact that the spirit was leeching off energy from Pinky, judging from how much miasma she herself was emitting, which really raised it's level. He had a slight clue what kind of monster was living in her house, but until he saw it in action himself he won't be able to tell for sure.

That's how he had set his mind on a stake-out. He had parked his car in the empty house's parking lot to avoid suspicion, most of the people around were under the impression that he was the owner of the house anyway. From his spot he could perfectly see Pinky's house across the street.

She had turned all lights out somewhere around 10 PM and it had been quiet ever since then. Ghosts usually became the most active during 2 AM, so he still had a little bit of time to kill. Every now and then he activated his Sharingan to check for any movement, but nothing had changed for a while now.

He previously had spent some of his time texting the cute brunette, Kyouka, he had met at Kõnotori, but she soon had called it a night and he had surfed the net mindlessly after that. At least his quick departure hadn't quenched the brunette's interest in him. Itachi had called and threatened him to leave what he had called his flavour of the week and do his job. Usually when this happened he didn't get any responses from the girls, but Kyouka was an angel and was still interested to have a "date" with him.

Shisui popped another potato chip in his mouth and threw a glance towards Pinky's house. He cursed when he saw the spike in energy around the house, shadows moving behind windows. Throwing his phone aside he grabbed his duffel bag from the back-seat and pulled out his gun from the glove compartment.

Tumbling out of his car he ran towards the house, hoping that he won't be too late. With ghosts or any other nocturnal creatures he could never know. Water splashed around his feet from the puddles that had accumulated on the road from the rain. He didn't bother using the door when he reached her house, instead he made his way through her wilted flower beds and towards the window.

Every second counted.

He heard muffled screams come from the house and he wasted no time to smash the window with the butt of his gun. Hastily removing the extra shards he hoisted himself in the house and ran towards the screams.

Heart pounding in his chest, he directed his way through her small house and up the stairs. Throwing open the first door he saw, he was met with the sight of Pinky clawing at her carpet as something was pulling her under her bed and growling.

Shisui threw his duffel bag aside and ran to the woman, taking one of her hands, to which she clung to like a life line as soon as contact was made.

"Hold on!" He avoided looking at her tear stained face and focused on what was under her bed. He wasn't sure if pulling her out would be the best thing, since the monster could have claws that might be lodged in her flesh, though he had no other option seeing as she was starting to slip from his hold.

Cursing he threw her cowers up and angled the gun in his free hand towards the darkness, where he guessed the snarling monster was. He took a shot, the loud noise reverberating in his ears. The Uchiha was pleased to hear the monster whimper and release its hold on Pinky.

She immediately scampered out and in his arms toppling them both over on the carpeted floor.

It wasn't Shisui's first time dealing with frantic victims, so he let her seek comfort from him. She was bawling by now, clutching his shirt in an iron grasp, her body shaking. He let his free hand slide over her shoulder in comfort.

While the pink haired woman calmed down Shisui put his gun away. The monster had reacted to his chakra infested bullet, which only meant that it was a spirit, albeit a powerful one. Simple bullets like that wouldn't have worked if it had been a demon type monster or any other kind. He had been taking a huge guess and gotten lucky. Irritating a demon with a chakra bullet might have ended bloody.

Now he had to figure out what was feeding the hostile spirit aside from the energy the woman was giving it for it to have gained enough strength to cause such chaos around it.

He let his eyes roam over Pinky's shaking form. He didn't miss the slight discolouration around her ankles and what he guessed was neon green ectoplasm on her feet and calves. So, if it was green then it meant that it was an earth, nature spirit, which might explain the wilted flora around the house. With his Sharingan he noted that now, after the attack, the miasma around Pinky's body had subsided. He was guessing, but it might be possible that the woman herself was feeding the spirit with something more, though not by choice if the attack was any indication.

Speaking about said woman, she had just about calmed down. Her tears had stopped and it looked like she was coming out of her spooked state. She unclenched her grip and removed herself from him, swiping her runny nose on the sleeve of her shirt. With her off he was finally able to sit up.

"What _was_ that?"

Shisui averted his eyes from her wide eyed gaze, figuring out a way how to break it to this woman. Probably best he just cuts it to the chase, she seems smart, she'll probably understand. "A ghost. An eater ghost to be specific. It's feeding on the energy you're giving it."

She blinked, rubbing her puffy eyes. "You're kidding, right?"

"Afraid not, Pinky. You're lucky that I was here to save you from it otherwise you'd might have become ghost chow."

The pinkette grimaced. "My name's Sakura, not Pinky."

Shisui chuckled, leaning to the side to grab his duffel bag and pull it closer to himself. Interesting how she found more interest in correcting how he calls her rather the fact that she had nearly lost her soul if it hadn't been for him rushing in and saving her. "Sorry. You never told me your name, so I had to name you something. Calling you 'that pink haired woman' in my head was too long and too tedious." He zipped open his bag, plunging his hand in it after that.

She rolled her eyes. "You're very original." Sarcasm laced her voice.

He noticed her eyes follow his movements and he had to bite back a smile. "Yeah, well, I didn't come here to be original, I came here to capture that soul sucking critter and free you from it's clutches." He sent a wink her way, glad that she was already in lighter spirits than before.

Sakura hugged her knees, wincing a bit when she noticed the green gunk on her ankles. She hid her pink face behind her curtain of hair. "I guess I should thank you for saving me from that _soul sucking critter_ then," she mumbled.

Finding what he was looking for he pulled out his journal from the bag. "That'd be nice. Not many people are able to string two words together after an attack like this, so a thanks is a rare gift for us." He hefted himself off the floor.

She raised her head. "Us?"

Shisui held out a hand for her. "Yep, there's more people like me all around the country." He smiled while she eyed his outstretched hand sceptically. "C'mon, let's get out of this room."

The pinkette finally accepted his hand and let him pull her off the floor. While still holding onto her shaking hand he picked up his duffel bag and led her out of the room and down the stairs, where in the common room he desperately searched the walls for a light switch. He felt Sakura lean a bit further away from him and suddenly the room was bright, making spots dance across his eyes. He blinked a few times, letting his eyes adjust to the light. Noticing a couch near the wall across from a TV set and a coffee table, he dragged Sakura along with him to there.

"Umm...Shisui, was it?"

"Yeah?" He sat down on the couch, bringing the pinkette down with him. He left his duffel bag on the ground near his feet and put his journal in his lap, skimming through it.

She let out a shaky breath. "What...uh...what's going to happen now?"

He paused to glance at her, seeing the fear in her face told him that despite calming down she was still frightened, shaking like a leaf. Still it was a feat on its own, he hadn't seen that many people be so composed after a supernatural attack like that. "I'm not sure, but we should be fine for now. I shot it with a chakra bullet which should keep it at bay for the night." He resumed until he found what he was looking for only to frown at it.

"Umm...I..." Sakura was stammering now. He guessed the attack was finally setting in, probably mentioning the soul sucking thing wasn't the best idea. He was considered to be one of the best in his clan when it came to ghost capture and dealing with people, but in reality he tended to mess up just as much as anyone else. Blabbing too much was a fault Itachi constantly reprimanded him for. The pinkette increased her grip on his hand. "I'm lost. What's going on?"

Closing his journal he haphazardly threw it on the coffee table. He had hoped to find something about the eater ghost more, since he had faced one before and he clearly remembered jotting down notes, but he had been in such a rush when doing them that his handwriting was nearly illegible. The last time he faced an Eater had been years ago and his memory was foggy, so that's where usually his journal came in handy. Too bad he had been too drunk to write properly. In hindsight he should have done the celebrating the day after (wait, what was he even celebrating back then?) and jotted down notes right after he had finished his task.

Turning back to Sakura he ran his free hand through his unruly hair. "It's a lot to explain." He peered at her shaking hand. "And I'm not sure if you'd want to hear it now."

She glanced down at their hands and realizing their position let go like burned and scooted further away from him. Shisui suppressed a grin. How cute. He didn't mind when she kept clinging to him. She cleared her throat before speaking again. "I want to hear it, it's not like I'm going to be able to fall asleep after that."

The Uchiha leaned back in the couch, making himself comfortable. From the look in her eye – determined yet fearful – she wasn't going to let this go so easily. "You sure?" Still didn't mean he wasn't going to try to do the opposite. They weren't exactly trying hard to be a secret to the public, but there still were a couple of details that couldn't be disclosed. Plus it was a lot to talk about and he'd rather have a nap than explain it all.

"Yes."

Shisui sighed. "What do you want to know?"

Sakura crossed her legs and turned to face him, face set in stone. "Who are you and why did you have red eyes?"

Well, crap. She noticed. He had hoped that she'd be too preoccupied with being dragged under her bed to notice his Sharingan. Though he guessed he should have predicted this knowing that the Sharingan tended to glow, especially in the dark.

"Ah, well. You already know my name." She looked at him dubiously and he had to bite back a strained chuckle. "Don't expect for me to tell you everything, Cherry, but Shisui really is my name, I didn't lie about that. And the red eyes were my bloodline limit."

She grimaced at his choice of nickname, but didn't say anything about it. Instead she found interest in something else. "Bloodline limit? I've heard about those. I think my ex had one too, but he never talked about it."

"Yeah, the red eyes, as you called it, is something only my clan has, it helps us to see the supernatural."

"You mean things like that toothy monster?"

"Yup. Wait! How do you know it had teeth?" He hardly got a look at the thing, only seeing it as a black blob, no teeth in sight.

She shied away, turning her face to the other side. "W-well, when it dragged me out from my bed it bared it's six rows of teeth at me."

Now he was interested. "You actually saw it? And you don't have a bloodline limit, right?" At least there wasn't anything that indicated of her having one.

"Yes and no. Why is this important?"

"Because regular people can't see them unless they have a bloodline limit like mine or are spiritually inclined."

"O-oh." She bit her lip and fiddled with her fingers.

Shisui noted how suddenly she seemed nervous, avoiding to even glance his way, finding more interest in the pattern of her couch. She must be hiding something. He didn't want to jump to the conclusion of her being a witch, though the more time he spent with her the more it started to look like she might be one. The question now was: was she lying to him or she honestly had no clue what's going on?

"But you've already seen the ghost before, haven't you?"

Sakura raised her head to peer at him. "Yes. I didn't think much of it at first because I don't have the time to dwell on nonsense like that, but I started to notice odd things happening around me and I couldn't keep denying it to myself. The problem was that I had no clue what to do, so I just left it. I'm moving back to Konoha in a month anyway."

He noted the fact that she was from Konoha, meaning that he could go into the archives and search her up in case she doesn't know her history or she decides to lie to him. "That's brave of you," he praised her, smiling her way lazily. "Most people would have freaked out and bailed."

She shook her head. "I'd say foolish. If I hadn't ignored it I wouldn't have gotten in this mess."

"Well, because of your "mistake" I got to meet you. That's a positive."

The pinkette grimaced, eyeing him weirdly.

Shisui bit his lip. Okay, maybe that wasn't something he should have said. It sounded like he was glad that she got attacked by a ravenous ghost. He averted his eyes to the black screen of the TV, feeling his eyesight blur. He hadn't slept at all for nearly two days and the exhaustion was starting to affect him. The short nap he had had in his car hardly replenished his strength. He forgot what he wanted to say, sleep taking hold of him.

"Well..." she dragged the word, catching the Uchiha's attention again. "What's done is done. All I really care about now is if you can get rid of it. If you can then great, if not then get out of my house." She strained a fake, sweet smile at the end, clasping her hands in her lap.

He stared at her for a moment, trying to process what she'd said. Blunt and straight to the point. He smiled and shook his head. He hadn't been expecting something like that to come from her mouth. He might even like her more now. Quite the character. "I can. I just need to confirm some things before I do anything."

Sakura smiled for real this time. "Great. Can I help in any way?"

The Uchiha yawned and got up from the couch, dropping his journal in his duffel bag. "Dunno. It's best if you stay away." He rubbed his eye from sleep and picked up his bag and made his way towards the door.

His advancement was stopped when the pinkette held him in place by his hand. "Where are you going?"

He hefted his bag on his shoulder and peered down at the woman and her doe eyed look. "Back to my car."

"Why?"

"I wanna sleep."

She scowled and increased her grip on his arm. "Don't leave me alone. I-I don't want to be alone while that thing is still here. I need to get some sleep before my shift in the morning and if you leave I won't be able to rest. Please, stay? You can sleep here, just stay and don't leave me alone." She averted her gaze to the floor, a dust of pink settling on her cheeks.

He drew his brows together. "Are you sure? I'm a stranger to you. Shouldn't you be more cautious of me?"

She bit her lip and looked to the side, doing everything to avoid his eyes. "I know, but you saved me. That counts for something. If you wanted to do something vile to me wouldn't you have already done it? Why even go through the effort to save me then?"

Shisui hummed. "You got a point." He dropped his bag on the floor. "Alright I'll stay." Besides staying inside where it was warm and cosy beat sleeping in his car. He loved his baby, but it wasn't suited for sleeping.

He made his way back to her couch Sakura following him in hurried steps. Falling back in the soft cushions he closed his eyes and tried to enjoy the short moment of silence and comfort.

"I...uhm...I'll get you a blanket and a pillow."

He cracked an eye open to see Sakura scurry away to another room. He took the time while she was gone to pull off his sneakers and prop his legs on the coffee table. Now when the thought of sleep had entered his mind it was near impossible to ward off. His eyelids were heavy like rocks and he could already feel his mind slipping to dreamland. A moment later he felt something soft being placed beside him.

"I'm just gonna...stay...for a while..."

The Uchiha shook off his vest and hoodie before taking the blanket and pillow Sakura gave him. Only then it registered in his muddy brain that the woman was still in the room, standing awkwardly, staring at the ground and biting her lip.

"Go to bed, Sakura. It's late."

Her head snapped up to meet his eyes. "I can't go back there!"

"Don't you have a spare room to take?"

She averted her gaze. "No. Yes! Wait, no. There is a room, but it's not furnished. I live alone, so there was no need to furnish the extra room." The words fell out of her mouth in a rapid rate, Shisui barely catching what she'd said. "Can't I stay here? For a while. Like...I can...just..."

He sighed, laying back on her couch. "It's your house, do as you like. You can join me on the couch if you want." He patted the small space left beside him teasingly.

Her eyes widened. "It would be way too cramped and inappropriate, I can't do that."

"It's your call." He let the conversation end after that, falling asleep as soon as he'd closed his eyes. He hadn't meant to be rude, but the days events and his exhaustion had caught up, cutting off anything else he might have wanted to say.

Xxx

"Yeah, hi. I might have gotten into a little problem."

His cousin sighed. " _What is it, Shisui?_ "

The said Uchiha returned the sigh, running a hand through unruly black hair. "Do you remember when we faced those Eaters?"

There was a pause on the other end and the noise of a radio in the background. " _Yes._ "

Shisui beamed, falling back on the couch a new slice of pizza in hand. "Great 'cause I remember squat."

" _I'm not surprised with how drunk you were all through that. By any chance are you drinking again? I'm sure I wrote some notes down in the journal."_

The new information made Shisui stop mid bite. He doesn't remember there being notes on Eaters in the journal. Itachi's question also made his eyes drift to Sakura's coffee table where two empty beer bottles lay with a box of pizza. "Nooo..." he let the word drag out, which unfortunately for him sounded fake. "What gave you that idea?"

" _When you have too much to drink you tend to miss obvious things, like not being able to read what's clearly in front of you."_

The Uchiha scoffed at the accusation. "I was not drunk yesterday, maybe a little buzzed, but sober enough to drive."

He could hear Itachi hum incredulously. " _Either way, check your journal again, it's there. And go easy on the alcohol, you know that it doesn't help."_

"Okay, mom," Shisui mocked, letting the subject slide. Thankfully Itachi didn't press it either. It was a conversation they've had countless times before, always ending the same. He had his own ways of coping with things and Itachi had his, it just so happened that his had fallen on the bad habit side more than Itachi's. Shisui decided that it was a time for topic change. "Where are you going anyway?" From the noises coming from his cousin's end of the phone he had concluded that Itachi was driving.

Itachi was quiet for a moment again before responding. " _Otou-san sent me out to check out a recent ghoul attack in the outskirts of Konoha._ "

"Again?"

With Itachi preparing to take the reins of the company he had been stuck in the office a lot lately. Field missions for his cousin were a rarity nowadays, especially good ones. A ghoul attack in the cemetery happened quite often and usually it was a boring and tedious task of clearing the monsters from the area, the monsters acting more like vermin than anything.

The Uchiha on the other side of the phone let out a long sigh and Shisui could almost imagine the scowl his cousin was wearing at that moment. " _It doesn't matter how many times I get the same mission as long as it gets taken care of and Konoha is safe I don't particularly care."_ Or so he said, but Shisui knew better than that. He could hear the annoyed undertone in his cousin's voice. He knew that even the patient Itachi could get tired of the same thing again and again for months. That's why Shisui was a wanderer – travelling all over the country sometimes even out of the country, finding odd jobs and every now and then completing the obligatory tasks Fugaku gave him, like this trip to Krane.

Shisui took a bite of his pizza. "Well, it's still a shit mission. You're gonna get rusty with the way you're going now."

" _I don't want to talk about it."_

He laughed in good humour, knowing that Itachi certainly didn't like the restrictions Fugaku had put on Itachi, not realizing that he was hindering his own son by doing so. "Either way, while your busting your ass in the office, I've been saving pretty pink haired girls from ghosts."

" _From_ _the Eaters I presume?"_

"Well, Eater, there's only one ghost, but yes. It's one tricky case, I gotta say." He took another bite from his pizza before putting it down and taking a swig from his third beer bottle. "'m having difficult time figuring out what's exactly feeding the ghost. It's stupid strong, too. Had to put up some warding to keep it at bay while I figure it out."

He heard his cousin get out of the car and the sounds of the wind replaced the radio sounds in the background. " _Could it be the girl? Eaters are always stronger when they feed from a particular emotion from a person rather than the energy from the environment."_

Shisui shot up in his seat. "That's it! That was what I was forgetting." He deflated no soon after, realizing that his situation wasn't as simple as that. "But I think this ghost might be feeding from everything: her energy, the environment and her emotions."

" _That's oddly specific."_

The Uchiha scoffed. "Tell me about it. I wasted my whole morning cutting off it's energy source from outside by warding it to Sakura's room. It's still too strong and I'm afraid that it might have trashed her room." If the guttural sounds that came from the pinkette's room was any indication then there was a good chance that she'd might need to get new furnishing and a window.

Thankfully for him the pinkette had left early in the morning, rushing out of the house, shouting how late she was for her shift and that he'd better behave while she got back. He'd barely registered anything at that moment, too sleepy to be aware, though after the realization that she'd trusted him enough to leave her house in his charge he'd remembered everything, even how she had spent the night in the living room, sitting on the floor with her head resting near him on the couch.

That had made him feel like a scumbag, so all morning he'd been thinking how he could make it up to her. Taking the ghost away didn't seem like it was enough. Maybe fixing up her house could, he did break her window after all.

" _It's a good start."_

Shisui moaned, falling down in the couch. "Yeah, but there's still no way for me to get closer to it until I figure out a way to decrease its power or somehow make Sakura stop giving it power."

" _Sakura? Did you also say that she has pink hair?"_

"Yea. What does it have to do with anything?" He drew his eyebrows together in a frown. Itachi just completely derailed their conversation and here he was hoping for his cousin to just tell him what to do, so he doesn't have to search through the journal again.

" _There aren't a lot of pink haired girls out there especially pink haired girls named Sakura, so if I'm right this might be the same Sakura. I did hear something about her moving to Krane for a couple months for an internship._ "

"You know her?"

" _Well, don't you remember her? She was Sasuke's friend and girlfriend for a short moment during high school."_

He scratched his head. _Sasuke's friend._ He can't say he remembers the friends of his other cousin so well. Sasuke is eight years younger than him, so he naturally didn't spend that much time with Sasuke, especially after he entered hunting training at fifteen. Though now when he thinks about it he does remember a few times seeing a blonde boy and a pink haired girl hang around the grumpy Uchiha.

"I'm not sure. I haven't talked to Sasuke in years." If he remembered correctly then Sasuke was still a greenhorn, hunting with a mentor. How old was he even, twenty two? Hmm...he might be mixing up his timelines here, Sasuke was too old for a mentor then. Either way, he has no clue what's going on with Sasuke or what happened to his friends.

" _I heard that Sasuke had a falling out with her anyway. It doesn't matter, really, I just find it to be an interesting coincidence."_

Interesting indeed, the pinkette hadn't recognized him either, so if it wasn't for Itachi connecting the dots they might have not made the connection at all.

" _Anyway, I need to get going. Read the journal again it might have more information on the Eater. Bye."_

"Yea, bye."

Itachi ended the call and Shisui dropped his phone on the couch, still trying to process the info he got from his cousin.

Dang, he really needs to talk with his family more, apart from Itachi or some other higher up Uchiha he didn't communicate much with others from his clan, preferring to stay on the road, hunting monsters in a never ending loop. He knew that he had unconsciously developed such a habit from his need to get away from his clan's policies, though, on the positive side, he got to meet all kinds of girls because of that and if they got clingy he could just disappear in a flash. No strings attached, no one controlling him (apart from the occasional time Fugaku decided he had to check out a certain place), he was a free spirit.

Deciding that he should stop laying around he pulled his duffel bag out from under the table and yanked out the journal. He swore that he had searched through it thoroughly yesterday and hadn't found anything of substance in there, but then again he had been a bit delirious and might have, like Itachi had said, missed what was written right in front of him.

Grabbing a new slice of pizza and lodging his beer bottle between the couch cushions he made himself comfortable in the couch for some extended reading.

Xxx

When Sakura finally got back late afternoon he had already confirmed that what Itachi had said to him had been true – there indeed was an entry on Eaters in the journal written in Itachi's neat handwriting. He didn't know how he had missed it, but the entry he had been trying to previously read had been on wraiths, written in his own drunken scrawl. Ugh, maybe Itachi was right – again – he should lay back on the drinking, but nothing else really helped as good as alcohol to keep the bad thoughts away.

The pinkette was removing her shoes, balancing on one foot while holding a plastic bag in her other free hand. "I'm so sorry for leaving you like that in the morning, but I had an early shift that I couldn't miss."

Shisui seeing the accident that was prone to happen with how wobbly she was took the plastic bag from her and held her steady by holding onto her upper arm. "'ts okay, it gave me time to prepare."

She silently thanked him for his help as he let go of her. "By the way thanks for not being a crook and ransacking my place. It was pretty stupid of me to leave you here, but I just sometimes lose my head when I'm late."

The Uchiha laughed in good humour. "No problem. It recently came to my attention that we're acquaintances anyway."

She arched her eyebrow in question and took off her jacket, hanging it on her coat rack.

He smiled, watching her confused expression. So she still hadn't been able to connect the dots either. He couldn't exactly blame her, there was the possibility that she hadn't paid any attention to him at all when they were younger. "I'm Itachi and Sasuke's older cousin – Uchiha Shisui at your service." He mock bowed to her like she was a nobleman, trying to make it as dramatic as possible for extra effect. When he raised back up the surprise was clear across her face, eyes wide. He silently laughed to himself at her bafflement.

"That's why I thought the name sounded familiar." She composed herself and gave him the once over, like she was seeing him for the first time again. "You've changed...a lot."

He shrugged, rubbing his chin (dang, he needs to shave, having a five-o-clock shadow wasn't his thing). "Well, time will do that to ya. I'm surprised you remember me at all, if it wasn't for Itachi telling me about you I wouldn't have realized at all that you're the same little Sakura that used to hang around Sasuke a lot."

Her lip curled upwards in displeasure. "Ugh, don't even mention him to me. One of the reasons why I moved to Krane was to get away from everything, especially anything Uchiha related."

"Looks like you won't be able to get rid of us that easily." He smirked pointedly.

Sakura snorted a laugh and slapped him on his shoulder. "I'm being serious. Sasuke was a dick. Anyway, do you want anything to eat? I bought take-out." She motioned with her head to the plastic bag he was still holding, effortlessly changing the topic.

"Oh, so that's what was smelling so good." He glanced into the bag noticing two boxes.

"I got some kimchi udon and yaki udon. Choose whichever you like." She walked past him, waving her hand aimlessly.

He followed her to the kitchen. The pinkette immediately pulled out two pairs of chopsticks from a drawer and indicated with her head for him to take a seat at the kitchen table. Shisui placed the bag on the table and pulled out the box with kimchi udon for himself, leaving the other to Sakura.

"By the way, I wanted to ask you: what is it that you do exactly?" She took the remaining box from the bag and put the bag aside, with her other hand handing him a pair of chopsticks.

He took them and took a seat, opening the box, smiling in delight at the food. All he's had to eat today has been that box of pizza he'd ordered. "I'm a hunter, a monster hunter to be more specific."

Sitting opposite of him, she questioningly eyed him.

"I see Sasuke hasn't told you anything."

Sakura snorted, plunging her chopsticks in her udon. "He never told me anything. I didn't even know what his bloodline limit was or what was that side job he was so busy with all the time."

He winced a bit seeing her practically stab her udon and stuff it in her mouth. "Well, he was busy with training, I can tell you that. At the age of fifteen every Uchiha has to go through basic training, after that if you passed the first batch of training and have awakened the Sharingan you go through monster hunting training."

"Wait, wait!" She swallowed her food before continuing, "Does this mean that everyone in your clan are hunters?"

"More or less. We're a special government organization that works in the shadows most of the time."

"Wow. And no one knows about you?"

He finally took a bite of his own udon as well before answering. "Only a couple of people, obviously the Hokage and daimyõ know. We usually advise people not to say anything if it comes down to telling about us, but it's a rare occurrence."

Sakura kept stuffing her face, intently listening to him. "So, does it mean that I'm a special occurrence?" She grinned cheekily.

He returned her smile and absent-mindedly pointed his chopsticks at her. "You are very special. Your case is giving me a headache."

She huffed a laugh. "What's so bad about it? I thought that you had it under control."

"That's what I'm saying – you're special and you're giving the ghost something that's keeping it at full power despite me cutting it off from it's natural power source."

While Sakura had been away the ghost should have gotten weaker after getting warded to Sakura's room from the lack of both the energy it got from the environment and whatever emotion it was feeding on from Sakura, but that hadn't been the case. The journal helped him remember how to seal it, but if he didn't manage to lower the Eater's power it will not be possible to seal it and he might need to resort to a different method.

She frowned, brows drawn together. "I 'ain't feeding it if that's what you're suggesting, I didn't even know about its existence until only recently."

Shisui sighed, knowing that he'll have to explain everything to her for him to get to the bottom of this case. He had a few suspicions of what might be going on, but he first wanted to talk it through with her to be sure.

The next few hours Shisui spent explaining everything to Sakura and what their plan of action might be if they can't figure out a way to decrease the power of the spirit. Sakura truly was clueless in the supernatural and awfully curious, asking one question after the other, absorbing all of the information he gave her like a sponge. Still it didn't bring him closer to solving the enigma of the Eater ghost.

They'll have to capture the ghost the hard way then.

While preparing his weapons he also found out that Sakura could use her chakra, which only proved to him that Sakura wasn't normal. All normal civilians had chakra, but only people trained in using it could use it. He saw that Sakura hadn't been faking her curiosity. Another mystery presented itself to him and once again he had no answers. Sakura truly was an interesting woman.

"So what is this for?" she asked, rolling around her palm the black onyx he had given her.

"It's for protection. Keep it in your pocket or anywhere else on your person and the ghost won't touch you."

Sakura eyed him, placing the small rock in the front pocket of her jeans. "Do you have one as well?"

Shisui placed down the gun he was loading with the chakra infested bullets Sakura had helped him charge. "Nope. I don't need one. I have had enough mental training that I naturally repel spirits." He handed her a bundle of dry pine branches, which he pulled out from his duffel bag. "When you go in burn these as well, it will calm the Eater."

She accepted the bundle with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure this will work?"

Shisui mock frowned. "You have no faith in me, Sakura."

The pinkette returned the scowl in a condescending way. "Can you really blame me? This all is still new to me. I feel silly doing all of this." She waved the bundle of pine around for extra emphasis, making loose needles fly.

He chuckled. "That's only natural, you get used to it. This isn't even the craziest thing I've had to do."

"Oh?"

"I'll tell you about it at another time." He sent a knowing grin her way, revelling in the way she froze up and a dust of pink settled across her nose.

Sakura cleared her throat and averted her gaze from his. "Okay, I trust you."

The Uchiha pulled out his exorcism book and an empty scroll for just in case they manage to only hinder it and not erase it from existence. Capturing was usually preferred for such a feat gave them an extra to their pay-check, especially if the monster they caught is a rare species, which later would be sent down to scientists for experimentation. He placed the scroll and book in an inner pocket of his vest and took his gun in his hands. "You ready?"

The pinkette bit her lip, raising her head to meet his eyes again. She belatedly nodded, absently pulling out a lighter from her pocket, which he had given her earlier. The next moment she visibly steeled herself, the uncertainty slipping from her face, getting replaced by determination. "Let's get that son of a bitch out of my house."

He smirked, pleased to see her change like that so quickly. With the knowledge he has on her so far she'd make a great hunter. She already had the aptitude for controlling chakra at a spectacular level, she could see the monsters and she had the mentality of a fighter, all that was left was the physical training and general knowledge of the supernatural all of which he had no doubt she could learn quickly.

He checked the time on his phone – just a bit past 8 AM – before placing it back in his pocket. He wanted to deal with the Eater ghost before it reached its full strength at 2 AM and got too powerful to react to an exorcism. He at first wanted to simply shoot it with a couple of chakra bullets to hinder it, so he can seal it, but that had quickly went out of the window when the ghost didn't lose its power during the day, thus he will have to resort to using an exorcism.

Shisui took the lead, Sakura following him closely up the stairs. From their position they could already hear the guttural growls and snarls of the Eater. He didn't know exactly how monstrous the Eater looked like, but it still was sad to know how much this spirit had fallen to turn into a base instinct beast like this, passing the point of salvation. He turned to Sakura, hand on the door handle.

She nodded in return, ready to set fire to the branches.

Raising his gun higher and closer to the door he slowly pushed it open. Once he walked in he was prepared for an assault instead he was met with quiet – the ghost suddenly ceased all noise, it was nowhere to be seen.

Sakura followed him in no soon after, already keeping the lighter under the branches. She silently gasped when she noticed the condition of her room. Apart from the trash strewn all around and green ectoplasm there were scratches everywhere – walls, floor, ceiling, her bed, furniture. He had been right when he'd said that she was going to need new furnishing.

"W-where is it?" The pinkette came closer to him, the smoke of the pine engulfing her.

The Uchiha activated his sharingan. The ghost should have been visible without the need of it, by now its power level had risen high enough that regular civilians should even see it. Something wasn't right. Why was it hiding? The smell of the pine should have irritated it. He hadn't wanted to lie to Sakura, but for him to test his theory it had to be done. The pine was supposed to calm the ghost under normal circumstances, but if he was right and Sakura was a witch and had unwittingly taken the ghost as a familiar the pine will only anger the spirit. So far it looked like he was wrong.

He scanned the room, looking for any kind of ripple in the air or trails of miasma. It was hard to pinpoint the Eaters' exact location with how miasma infected the room was, but if he was right then, in the most cliché way possible, the monster was under the bed. He narrowed his eyes. "Stay here."

Sakura only nodded as he advanced towards her shredded bed. He kept his gun at eye level, grip firm and finger tense on the trigger.

The late evening light from the window was of little help, so he told Sakura to turn on the lights in the room. As soon as light engulfed the room the ghost rushed out from under the bed in a blur of black and green. The spirit moved too fast for him to take a shot successfully. He could only watch as the Eater with a screeching sound flew right towards Sakura and disappeared in her.

Sakura's eyes widened momentarily before her head hung limp, face covered by a curtain of pink hair, the almost burnt up branches falling out of her hand.

Well, crap. The protection rock didn't work. This only solidified his theory of Sakura being a witch – she clearly has an intimate connection with the spirit if it was able to possess her so easily, a connection no normal human could make.

Shisui lowered his gun. "Sakura?" With cautious steps he advanced towards her, not letting his eyes stray from her. Thankfully the branches were only smoking, though they should probably take it out before a fire started.

The pinkette didn't respond, standing rigid. Her unresponsiveness was eerie and he could practically feel the tension rise in the air.

Still he walked closer until he was right before her. He knew that at this point the gun would be of no use to him – he had no intention to shoot Sakura, so he stuffed it in the waistband of his jeans. He bent a bit lower to see her face while he reached in his vest for the exorcism book. He didn't get far with that.

Sakura suddenly lunged at him, toppling both of them over. Her face was contorted in a vicious snarl as she started scraping at his arms, face and wherever she could reach with her nails. Neon green ectoplasm was flowing out of her mouth, dripping onto him.

The Uchiha cursed, trying to shake the pink menace off of him, but she was moving her hands too fast for him to find an opening. She was sitting on his midriff effectively pinning him to the ground. She left scratches across his face and arms, breaking skin. The ghost had contorted her features in something monstrous, her viridian green eyes nothing but sclera, teeth bared and pink hair strewn around in disarray.

He hated seeing her like this and considering the amount of ectoplasm that was leaking from her it wasn't healthy to her either. Fuck...he hadn't expected such a development. This was way worse than he had thought.

He saw an opportunity to strike back when she faltered for a moment to curl her hand into a fist. Before she could resume her onslaught he harshly shoved her off, immediately then he rolled away from her and jumped back to his feet, shaking out his limbs in the process for the fight he knew that was coming.

The possessed pinkette was relentless coming at him no soon after in an unnatural speed, growling in a voice that wasn't hers and making movements that weren't humanly possible.

He deftly sidestepped her lunge and avoided her hands that came after him. He curled his hand into a fist and made enough space between them to observe her movements.

The spirit must have been smarter than it looked because it had changed its tactic from scratching to punching, evident from Sakura's now assumed stance and balled fists. He knew that the ghost could go on for forever, but he was already winded from taking all of her assaults, trying to even his breathing.

He avoided a right hook from Sakura and in return struck her back in her solar plexus. She stumbled back from the force of his punch, arms flailing. Shisui let a grin slip across his lips. So he was giving the ghost too much credit – it wasn't that smart after all – it only knew how to attack.

He swiped off the blood from his brow that was threatening to trickle into his eye and went after the staggering Sakura before she could recuperate. His first strike missed for Sakura regained her spastic movements from before, at points bending in unnatural angles.

She screeched, the sound piercingly high and echoey and made an exaggerated swing towards his face.

Shisui dodged the punch and with his left hand swung towards her head. Because of her erratic movements he missed again and nearly got himself hit in the face with her elbow. With a spring in his step he jumped back, watching as Sakura's body convulsed and ectoplasm sprayed from her mouth as she snarled his way.

She was coming back at him, fingers extended possibly wanting to scratch him again.

He ducked Sakura's advance and stuck out his leg, making her trip and hit the bed with her upper half. Shisui grimaced. It looked painful and the way she bounced back didn't look natural. Jeez, by this point he hoped that Sakura was still alive.

The possessed pinkette sprung back to her feet in a wobbly fashion, empty eyes blinking in confusion. Before she could locate him again and attack he front kicked her in the chest, sending her flying back on the bed.

Shisui used her disorientation to grab his gun from his pants and as soon as she started to rise back up he used the butt of his gun to strike her temple. For a moment he thought that it hadn't worked for Sakura still sat upright, but no soon after she fell back on the bed, eyes closed. He took a moment just to watch her if anything else will happen.

The green ectoplasm started to rapidly dry on her lips. He briefly activated his Sharingan to make sure the spirit indeed had gone dormant in her body.

The Uchiha let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and let himself drop on the bed near her. His hands were still shaking from the adrenaline high and he could feel blood start to trickle into his eye again. For such a short scuffle the ghost did quite a number on him. Shit. This isn't how it was supposed to end at all.

He evened his breathing and swiped the trickle of blood from his brow, sitting up in the bed. He put his gun on her nightstand and pulled out the black exorcism book from the inside pocket of his vest. It took him a while to focus on the letters and find what he needed. He had bookmarked the exorcism he was supposed to use for this ghost, but with it possessing Sakura everything had changed. Accidentally almost ripping a page he finally found the correct passage.

Shisui spared a short glance towards Sakura's sweaty face, grimacing. "I'm sorry, Sakura, but this is going to hurt."

He started the incantation and just as he predicted Sakura's body started spasming, more ectoplasm flowing from her mouth. He knew the exorcism was working when the ghost started screeching and tried to sit up to scratch at him. Without stopping the incantation he moved to straddle Sakura's body, pinning her arms under his knees in case the ghost managed to make a coherent move through the spasms.

He was halfway through when the pinkette stopped snarling and moving, falling still. He didn't dare to remove himself from her just yet, knowing that the very end of the exorcism sometimes could be the most violent part.

As he predicted at the mention of the last word from the exorcism her body spasmed again and if it weren't for him keeping her in place he didn't doubt that she'd bend in unnatural angles.

The ghost evaporated from her body with an inhuman screech that faded into the distance. Sakura stayed still, her features softening and the paleness washing out of her skin, yet she didn't wake. He could only guess that the possession had taken too much out of her for her to rise immediately.

Shisui swiped some of her messed up hair off her face, staring at her peaceful face sadly. He got off of her and placed his book back into his side pocket. Averting his eyes from her sleeping form he assessed the damages to her room. Well, it will be a bitch to clean up, especially the ectoplasm that had a penchant to seep into fabrics.

He took the free time to clean up whatever he could around her small house, while he waited for Sakura to wake up. Most of the things that had been touched by the ghost, except the window, which he had broken, was beyond repair and Shisui had already gotten used to the fact that he'll have to give Sakura the money to buy to replace whatever was broken.

In that time he hadn't touched Sakura much, except for when he cleaned the dried ectoplasm from her face and neck and to check if she's still breathing. Possession was a nasty thing and he could already see bruises forming on her exposed skin.

Two hours later Sakura rose with a loud groan that scared the crap outta Shisui at first. He'd been lounging in her desk chair half asleep, trying to catch up on all of the hours of sleep he'd lost.

He immediately ran up to her bed, checking to see any anomalies on her. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

Blearily the pinkette blinked at him, eyes trying to focus on his face. "...Shisui?" she asked before bringing her arm up to rub at her eye, wincing from the action. "What happened? I feel like someone sent me through a meat grinder."

He chuckled sheepishly. "You got possesses by the ghost. I didn't think that the ghost would go that far to fight back. I'm sorry for dragging you into it." He knew from personal experience that possession took a lot out of a person, even could make someone sick.

She scrunched her face in confusion. "I did? But I thought that the rock you gave me would protect me?" She tried to sit up higher in her bed, but the movement made her gasp in pain.

Shisui helped her settle against the headboard. "Yeah, about that..." he took a pause to gather his thoughts while Sakura stared at him curiously. He cleared his throat before continuing. "You're a witch, Sakura."

Her eyes widened marginally and she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

He took that as his cue to explain. "I suspected it early on, but didn't want to say anything to you until I was certain. On a normal person the rock would have worked, though since you have a very close relationship with the Eater it could ignore the protection and use your body as a vessel. Only witches are able to create such a bond with a spirit, take them on as familiars."

The pinkette kept staring at him like he'd sprouted demon horns on the spot. From her expression it was obvious that she won't be able to say anything just yet.

Shisui took a seat on her bed. "Look, I know it's a lot to take in, but there must have been signs you noticed before, like you being able to see clearly all of the monsters around. Any odd dreams? Heck, you having your own chakra reserves and such precise control of chakra already is a good indicator."

She suddenly got a far away look as if she'd remembered something valuable. "You're right, there have been signs, I just never paid them any mind."

Shisui curiously inclined his head, but Sakura didn't continue only stared at her hands in her lap with a pained expression. He could feel her mood take a full nose dive into something darker. He decided to speak up. "I know of someone who could help you with controlling your abilities. If you're interested I can give you their contact information."

She didn't look up to meet his eyes, only licked her chapped lips. "Okay."

He didn't know what to do further, it didn't feel like it was the right time to say sorry or say anything at all. He wanted to talk to her more, explain things, but from her lost expression it looked like she'll need some while to process everything.

She lifted her head to say something, but her eyes strayed to his arms and she gasped, breaking whatever tension there was. "What happened to your arms?" She tried to lean towards him and winced from the pain the motion caused her.

Shisui briefly looked at his arms, which he had kept in his lap and winced himself. He felt the stinging from the wounds, but he was so used to the slight pain that it hadn't even registered in his mind to do anything about it. He waved his hand. "It's okay, they're just a couple of scratches they'll heal."

Despite the pain she was feeling Sakura crawled closer to him and pulled his hand up. "They're not just a couple of scratches." She examined it for a bit, face scrunched before she let go. "You should treat them before you get an infection or something, many of them aren't as shallow as you think."

The Uchiha shook his head in disbelief, smiling. "I'm fine, Sakura. You should worry more about yourself."

"I'm a nurse, Shisui, all I do is worry about others." She sent a pointed glare his way before it was broken by a pained grimace.

He gently pushed her back by her shoulder. "Please, just for this once worry about yourself. I'm sorry I got you in this mess-"

"Hold up!" She shoved his hand away. "What do you mean you got me in this mess?"

"I shouldn't have let you join me in the first place, you're obviously inexperienced and I let my own curiosity-"

"Please stop."

He blinked, eyeing her downturned head, not understanding her sudden one-eighty. "I'm trying to apologize, Sakura."

She raised her hand, indicating for him to stop. "Let's not talk about this right now." Raising her head she sighed, eyeing his arms again. "Let me help you for now."

He wanted to argue with her further, but the menacing look she gave him made him pause in his words. Eventually he caved to her glare and agreed. He brought her first aid kid from the bathroom to her bed as she asked and let her work on his scratched arms and face, as she later had discovered once she'd gotten close enough.

She worked without saying a word, meticulously cleaning each scratch with an antiseptic wipe. During that time she didn't look up once. He could only watch as her petite hands worked in practised movements.

He wanted to talk to her, but once again the atmosphere felt tense and it was clear that Sakura was in distress. He might have fucked up way more seriously than he thought with this case.

Once she moved onto his face, he finally winced from the pain the antiseptic brought when Sakura swiped it across his forehead.

She didn't say anything, focusing on her work while he unabashedly stared at her face, trying to find any kind of change in her expression. Unfortunately she didn't react to his blatant staring as he'd hoped. He refocused to somewhere behind her and his eyes widened marginally when he noticed the glass of water he'd left on her night stand. What the fuck has he been doing? Sakura's clearly in pain and he has the medication to help her with it.

Gently removing her hands from his face and ignoring her confused stare he pulled out the bottle of pills he had been intending to give to her. "Take these once every two days for the next two weeks to get rid of the pain and ectoplasm contamination you might have." She blankly stared at the bottle, so he took her hand and placed it in her palm. "I know all of this is a lot to take in, but please at least take care of yourself. I won't always be around to remind you." He smiled sadly, subtly indicating that it was his time to leave.

Sakura still stared at the bottle, but eventually lifted her head, a small smile stretching across her lips. "Okay and thank you for everything." She clutched the bottle to herself and averted her gaze. "And I'm sorry for calling you a douche."

Shisui curiously raised his eyebrow. "You did that?"

Shamefully she met his eyes again. "Yeah, when you first came here I called you a douche that would shit balls as soon as danger comes out. Apparently I was very wrong about that and I'm sorry, Shisui."

He chuckled, glad that Sakura was coming back to her usual self. "It's fine. After everything that happened I wouldn't be surprised if you called me an asshole or something else."

Sakura suddenly leaned closer to him and he froze. She frowned and smacked him upside the head. "Stop beating yourself up for that. What happened happened and lets just leave it at that. I wasn't less guilty than you. I knew something was going on, but I never said anything, so please don't blame everything on yourself."

He pouted rubbing the spot where she'd hit him. "I just didn't want to hurt you, Sakura."

She smiled warmly, leaning back and opening the bottle of pills. "It's alright, I can take it. Stay around a little longer and you'll find out that I can take much more than that."

He watched her take out a pill and swallow it with water. "What do you mean?"

A small glint shone in her eye as she set down the water glass. "I've been doing kickboxing in my spare time for five years already."

His eyes widened and it suddenly made sense why the possessed Sakura had been so effective in dealing attacks and had even switched to a proper stance for attacking at one point. He grinned, closing his eyes and crossed his arms. "Hm, you learn something new every day." He cracked an eye open to see her smug look. "Does that mean that you remember everything that happened while you were possessed?"

"It's coming back slowly. It's still a blur mostly, but I do remember nearly punching you in the face a couple of times."

He laughed. "Yeah, that wasn't fun. You nearly got me a couple of times there, the scratching did most of the work though."

"You know tomorrow is saturday and I have practice. You could come and join, learn to fight better?" A pointed smile crossed her lips.

His grin and arms dropped. "I can't. I need to go, Sakura." He'd already taken longer than he should dealing with stuff in Krane. Fugaku was a punctual man and will be expecting his report in his e-mail by tomorrow morning and considering that Shisui wasn't planning to piss off his boss this time he'll have to clutch it to write it on time for once.

Sakura's smile fell as well. "It's the middle of the night. Where will you go? Just stay, I don't mind, in fact I would prefer to have company after everything that happened."

"I'm flattered that you still want me here, but I really can't stay, I have a job to do."

She averted her gaze, hugging her arms. A thick silence fell over them, thankfully it wasn't awkward, but still it felt kind of unnerving.

Remembering one last thing he had to do before he left he pulled out his wallet and gave her a card with a little piece of paper attached to it.

Sakura stared at his extended hand, dumbfounded. "I'm not taking that."

"Oh, 'cmon, Sakura. Your house is all messed up and I doubt that you'll have the funds to replace everything, take it as a gift."

"I'm not taking your debit card, Shisui. It's wrong."

He chuckled. "Nonsense, I have plenty of other cards and I have this one especially for situations like this. Believe me I have the money to spare." In all honesty he didn't do this that often at all, usually running away after the job was done and leaving the consequences. Though this time it was different, they were acquaintances and he didn't want to leave a bad impression on her or hear from Itachi that Sakura had said that he's a reckless dick or some other colourful _euphemism_ she might come up for him.

"Uh-huh, but it has your name on it. What if someone asks why I have it?"

"Just tell them that I'm your husband if it comes up. No one should bother you anyway if you know the code to it."

Sakura turned pleasantly scarlet at that, avoiding his eyes.

He had to bite down a laugh. "Tell you what, if you take it then I'll have a reason to come back."

With a small smile she sceptically eyed him. "Oh, so I'm not a reason enough to come back?"

He smirked, revelling in her flirting. This hadn't been the outcome he'd been expecting. He was a bit of a flirt by nature and was just having fun with her, though judging from her expression she was serious and wanted more. If she was any other girl he would have taken her offer. Sometimes he hurt the feelings of other girls who got like Sakura by disappearing after he had told them that he won't be serious and is just fooling around. For some reason he didn't want to hurt Sakura like that. Was it because he's known her ever since they were little or was it because he was afraid of the consequences that might come? He didn't know. Either way he knew himself and wasn't going to get her hopes up.

"Just take it, Sakura and if you ever run into any kind of supernatural trouble again don't be afraid to give me a call." He left his debit card in her lap and pulled out a business card from his wallet to add it to the pile.

The pinkette frowned at that, obviously she didn't like how he had avoided the question.

Not wanting to look at her sad expression anymore he got up from her bed, intending to leave. Staying longer would only mean to do more damage to her feelings.

"Wait!" She suddenly shot up from her place as well, wincing a bit, the cards he'd given her in hand. "I'll see you out." He opened his mouth to respond, but she quickly cut in," And before you say it, I feel fine. This is the least I can do."

He didn't argue with her, letting her lead him downstairs. She was a bit wobbly on her feet, but still managed to keep her balance and walk straight. He was just glad that she had accepted his refusal without complaint.

She opened the door and he had been planning to walk away without looking back, but she stopped him by latching onto his wrist. He turned around with a question on the top of his tongue, but it all flew out of his mind when she leaned on her tiptoes to leave a quick kiss on his cheek.

She let go of him after that, stepping back with a smile. "Thank you for everything, Shisui."

Dumbfounded he stared at her, resisting the urge to touch the spot she kissed. That was one of the most innocent kisses he's ever gotten, yet it still had caught him unprepared and had hit him more than he'd like to admit. He nodded, letting a small smile of his own slip across his lips. "I'll see you around, Sakura." He waved to her goodbye as he walked down her pathway to his car across the street.

Maybe he will come back for once.

* * *

 _As always I can't write anything shorter, but still I had fun. Dunno how well I handled this, but hey I tried. I'm sure that there are a couple of details that might seem weird or might not match up (from how much I've re-read and edited this I wouldn't be surprised at all if some incosistencies came up, so I'm sorry. Feel free to point them out, so I can fix them)._

 _Anyway, don't be afraid to tell me what you think._


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